The Emirates Group announced its best-ever half-year financial performance, posting a profit before tax of AED 10.4 billion (US$ 2.8 billion) for the first six months of 2024-25, surpassing its record profit before tax for the same period last year.
This is the first financial year that the UAE corporate income tax, enacted in 2023, is applied to the Emirates Group. After accounting for the 9% tax charge, the Group’s profit after tax is AED 9.3 billion (USD 2.5 billion).
Demonstrating its strong operating profitability, the Group maintained a robust EBITDA of AED 20.4 billion (US$ 5.6 billion), slightly lower from AED 20.6 billion (US$ 5.6 billion) last year.
Group revenue was AED 70.8 billion (US$ 19.3 billion) for the first six months of 2024-25, up 5% from AED 67.3 billion (US$ 18.3 billion) last year. This reflects the consistently strong customer demand across business divisions, and across regions.
The Group closed the first half year of 2024-25 with a solid cash position of AED 43.7 billion (US$ 11.9 billion) on 30 September 2024, compared to AED 47.1 billion (US$ 12.8 billion) on 31 March 2024. The Group has been able to tap on its own strong cash reserves to support business needs, including payments for new freighter aircraft orders and other debt payments. The Group also paid AED 2 billion in dividend to its owner, as declared at the end of its 2023-24 financial year.
His Highness (HH) Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline and Group said: “The Group has surpassed its record performance of last year to deliver a fantastic result for the first half of 2024-25. This again illustrates the power of our proven business model working in combination with Dubai’s growth trajectory as a city of choice to live, work, visit, connect through, and do business in.
“The Group’s strong profitability enables us to make the investments necessary for our continued success. We’re investing billions of dollars to bring new products and services to the market for our customers; to implement advanced technologies and other innovation projects to drive growth; and to look after our employees who work hard every day to ensure our customers’ safety and satisfaction.”
HH Sheikh Ahmed added: “We expect customer demand to remain strong for the rest of 2024-25, and we look forward to increasing our capacity to grow revenues as new aircraft join the Emirates fleet and new facilities come online at dnata. The outlook is positive, but we don’t intend to rest on our laurels. We will stay agile in deploying our capacity and resources in a dynamic marketplace.”
To support increased operations and business activities, the Emirates Group’s employee base, compared to 31 March 2024, grew 3% to an overall count of 114,610 on 30 September 2024. Both Emirates and dnata have ongoing recruitment drives to support their future requirements.
Emirates SkyCargo transported 1,198,000 tonnes in the first six months of the year, up 16% compared to the same period last year, with notable volume contributions from strong Chinese eCommerce traffic, and a rise in shipments bound for Dubai.
Emirates SkyCargo was able to meet demand with added capacity from 1 new Boeing 777 freighter delivered, and two additional wet-leased Boeing 747Fs. During the first six months of 2024-25, Emirates placed orders for 10 additional Boeing 777 freighters to support its growth.
Strong customer demand for Emirates SkyCargo’s specialised products and excellent network of freighter and bellyhold cargo operations saw cargo yields increase by 11%.
Emirates profit before tax for the first half of 2024-25 hit a new record of AED 9.7 billion (US$ 2.6 billion), compared to AED 9.5 billion (US$ 2.6 billion) for the same period last year. Emirates profit after tax is AED 8.7 billion (US$ 2.4 billion).
Emirates revenue, including other operating income, of AED 62.2 billion (US$ 16.9 billion) was up 5% compared with AED 59.5 billion (US$ 16.2 billion) for the same period last year. The airline’s new record revenue can be attributed to consistently strong travel and air cargo demand across markets, and its ability to offer customers great value and services.
Emirates’ direct operating costs (including fuel) grew by 6% in line with increased operations. Fuel remains the largest component of the airline’s operating cost (32%), compared to 34% in the same period last year.
Driven by customer demand and increased operations during the six months, Emirates’ EBITDA of AED 19.1 billion (US$ 5.2 billion) remained very strong, although slightly down by 2% compared to AED 19.5 billion (US$ 5.3 billion) for the same period last year.
